Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

158 CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGIYPT.

of the monastery of Our Lady, named after BaramAs1, in the desert
of Saint Macarius or Wadi Habib.
It was the custom among Christian pilgrims to make a pilgrimage
to these two saints three times in the year: namely, at the Feast of
the Cross, on the I7th of Tut; at the Feast of the Bathing2, on the
iith of Tubah; and on the Monday of Easter; and the people manifested great joy on account of these saints, and held spiritual communion
[with them].
The revenues of this monastery and this church, which are in the
district called Dahshur3, in the province of Al-Jiziyah, were composed
partly of an income of money and produce, together with the
endowments and votive offerings and other receipts. But this state
of things was afterwards changed, and disappeared through the disappearance of the good people; and this church became a mosque, and
was called the mosque of Moses; and the monastery was entirely
inundated by the river.
Church of the Virgin.
Fol. 54 a ~ There is a church named after Mary, the Pure Virgin. It was
restored in the patriarchate of Anba Isaac, the forty-first in the
succession, by Gregory, bishop of Al-Kais. The bricks and timber
of this church were taken away, at the time of the victory of the emir
Valentinian I, and to have been devoted to pious exercises from their youth. After
a pilgrimage to Nicaea, the scene of the Council, they determined to become
monks, and finally they became disciples of St. Macarius in the desert of Scete.
See Synaxarium ad diem. In the Bib. Nat. of Paris there is an Arabic life of the
two saints.
This famous monastery is still standing.
2 The Epiphany; see fol. 4I a.
3 On the western bank; now in the district of Jarzah, in the province of
Al-Jizah, and in 1885 had a population of 1,987. It is celebrated on account
of its pyramids. It stands opposite to Hulwan, but further to the south. See
Yakft, Geogr. Worl. ii. p. irr; Rec. de l'Egy'ple, ii. p. 93.